So.  I returned to an almost-full TiVo, an empty fridge and 900+ e-mails.  Really.  And after unpacking, tackling the e-mails, grocery shopping and beginning to clean out the TiVo, I’m feeling like I’m ready to pick up where I left off.  In some ways, I’m even a little eager to get back into the swing of things.

Before that, though, let’s give a short recap of the past week and a half, shall we?  I took a 10-day trip to Hawaii, the first three of which were spent based in Honolulu and exploring the island of Oahu.  From there, I hopped on a 7-day cruise around the rest of the islands.  Of course, while on Oahu, I did see Pearl Harbor.  It’s amazing to see the Arizona Memorial—it’s not like the ship is 50 feet down and you can’t see it, the ship is just below the surface.  And yes, oil still leaks to the surface from the ship… some of the people say it’s the ship “bleeding.” I took a tour of the whole island and saw the Buddhist temple on the east side of the island and the Dole plantation where they have a ton of pineapple—as well as the world’s largest maze as certified by Guinness, which I conquered in 34 minutes (there are 6 checkpoints). 

After Oahu, I jumped on the ship to see the rest of the islands.  Sadly, we couldn’t dock at Hilo on the big island because of weather, but we spent the day at sea.  The weather cleared later and we saw the lava fields of Mount Kilauea at night, which was stellar.  But we did spend two days on Maui, where I saw the beach that’s home to the windsurfing capital of the world and a valley used in Jurassic Park—I saw another filming location for Jurassic Park on Kauai.  Also on Maui, I went ziplining on Mount Haleakala, which was awesome.  We went back to the big island of Hawaii (this time to the Kona side) and I went snorkeling in Kealakekua Bay, which is where Captain James Cook first landed (and was subsequently killed) on Hawaii.  (Interesting side note:  The spot where Cook was killed was made into a monument and is the only British territory on U.S. soil… aside from their embassies, of course.) Snorkeling was cool—it was like swimming in an aquarium, and I saw mahi mahi!  I took a helicopter ride in Kauai to see the island from the air and saw Waimea Canyon (nicknamed the Grand Canyon of the Pacific); I also saw Bali Hai from South Pacific and Hanalei Bay, where the rock formations served as the inspiration for Puff the Magic Dragon (you can see the eyes in the hill behind me, but I still think Peter, Paul & Mary had to have been Puffing themselves to get a dragon out of the island topography).  Then we headed back to Honolulu, where I took this parting shot of the city.

And that’s the trip.  Tomorrow, I head back into the fray at work and face the torment from my co-workers about my stellar tan and my time off and my sweet new Hawaiian shirt—which actually does look cool, it’s not cheesy at all… really.